Each year I try to come up with a word or two to set the tone for what I’ll do in the next 365 days. This morning my wife and I were talking and she came up with a great word for her year first.

Healthy

That’s a great word, as it can apply to so many aspects of life. It’s super perfect for her, and she’ll use that as she thinks about each challenge that comes her way.

Though I am tempted to steal her word for myself, this year my word this year will be:

Connection

In past years I’ve tried to increase my network, and tried to learn more new things, and even tried to make more money. This year instead of going wide, I’m going deep.

I’m going to focus on connecting all the dots I’ve made over the last few years and make it an amazing year. I’m going to focus on learning more about the folks I know, like Noah and Steve in this picture.

What is your word of the year?

May 2011 be your best year ever, full of healthy connections and whatever your theme is for the year. If I can help you connect in any way, please let me know.

I just read the most helpful article ever about the right way to network, I had to share a link here with you.

Purposeful Networking is about the right way to connect with people, and I think it’s something everyone should print out and use in all their networking activities.

Take 10 minutes to read and print this article, then take time to actually DO what this article suggests.

What’s YOUR best networking tip?

When people call you, what do they hear if they don’t reach you? OK, so it’s probably a voicemail or other messaging system so they can leave you a message and you can call them back. So let’s assume that’s true, and let’s focus on the message you have that people hear when they call your number.

Many people have a plain vanilla greeting, and often you’re not even sure if you reached a human being or just a machine. “Hi, you’ve reached 555-1212. Leave a message.”

BARF!

Who am I calling, and why should I care enough to leave a message with you?

“Hi, this is Phil. Leave a message. I’ll call you back. Thanks.”

That’s a little bit better. At least I know I called Phil. Does he check his voicemail often? What if this is an emergency? Is there another way to reach Phil?

“Hi, you’ve reached Phil Gerbyshak. I’m not available to take your call right now, however your call is very important to me. If this call is between 7:30 am and 5:30 pm, please feel free to give me a call at work at 414-555-1212. Otherwise, leave your name, number, a brief message, and your favorite 80s rock band after the tone, and I’ll call you back as soon as I can. Thanks for calling. Make it a great day!” Hey, now that’s pretty good. There’s another number to reach me at, I let the caller know they’re important to me, I injected some humor into the situation (favorite 80s rock band, favorite 80s baseball/football/basketball player, you use what works for you), and I closed with energy: “Make it a great day!”

Most people do leave me a message, most laughing by my request for favorite 80s something or other, and then tell me what they need. Then I call them back as soon as I can with the same energy as I have on my voicemail greeting. After all, who wants to talk to someone plain vanilla boring?

Not me!

Energy is another key to your voicemail greeting, so practice having energy.

Reachability – Put some alternative methods of reaching you, and you’ll ensure people leave you a message with the information you need to make it a great day!

Variety matters. Change your voice mail greeting at least once a month. 12 times a year to change your greeting. That’s not so hard, is it?

Include your uniqueness. How many other people can you name who have the same greeting as you? If the answer is more than 1, you’re not being unique enough. Think about this as your signature phrase, where people think of you when they hear it. My friends leave me messages that tell me to make it a great day because I’ve added that as my signature to my voicemail greetings.

What does YOUR voicemail greeting say about you?

I’d love for your feedback on my greeting. Call me anytime at 414.640.7445. If you’re a little more shy, leave your favorite greeting in the comments below.

And don’t worry…My greeting isn’t what’s listed above anymore. I’ve already changed it!

Guy Talk photo credit to CarbonNYC

This article assumes you are signed up for a Twitter account. If you’re not, go ahead and sign up and then come back to learn a little bit more. While you’re there, make sure you follow me (I’m @philgerb)

I was a little late to really USE Twitter. I signed up for it right when it came out thanks to my involvement at the first SOBCon, but I didn’t really get the power of it until the last 6 months. Now, I’m hooked, and here’s why.

It’s only 1 idea at a time and not spammy – You only get 140 characters so there isn’t a lot of chance to share spam. Those folks that do spam, you can easily remove them  with one click. Just unfollow and they are out of your friend’s feed. That didn’t hurt a bit. 

Share a link fast – If you find a great article, great site, or great anything, you can easily share a link. Just post it out there (use a URL shortening service like http://is.gd), give it a little context, and soon, the whole world is going to see it.

Connect and re-connect to your friends – Any of your friends that are using Twitter offer you a great way to connect and keep up with them even if you don’t see them all the time. 

Connect to the stars – If you’re looking for a conversation with Shaq, Jimmy Fallon, or Oprah, you just might get it with Twitter. 

Dip and dive into any conversation you want – If you see something of interest, you can contribute your ideas to the conversation right away and help propel the idea forward. 

Still skeptical?

Tell me what your concern is and I promise to answer it in a future article.

If you’re hooked on Twitter, please share why below!

LinkedIn is one of my favorite tools I use to connect with folks in my network. I use it for a TON of different reasons, but before I share some advanced tips, I thought I’d share some basic tips about how to best use the free service out there. 

Top 10 11 LinkedIn Tips

1)      Your photo – Always include a picture of you smiling in your profile. It humanizes you and makes you seem more approachable. Mine is the same picture you see on the side of this blog.

2)      URL – Always customize the URL to be your name or something folks can remember. Mine is http://www.linkedin.com/in/philgerb 

3)      URL – If you don’t have your own blog or website, buy whateveryournameis.com and forward it to your LinkedIn profile. Don’t forget to include the www in your profile or it won’t work. 

4)      Name – Always include the way folks would know you so when they look for your name, they find you. Include your maiden name and/or nickname if applicable.

5)      Requesting Connections – Always customize your invitation when you ask people to join your network. Include how they know you, how you can benefit them by being a part of their network, and even how you hope to work with them in the future. Leaving this as the default says “You’re not important enough for me to customize this to you” or worse “You sent this to 200 people and are probably going to spam my network.” The default message of “‘I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” is NOT very compelling. 

6)      Email address – If you’re going to use your work e-mail address, always put your personal e-mail address on there as backup just in case you leave a company and forget your password.

7)      Export EVERYTHING – Monthly, export your entire profile and all your contacts so you have a hard copy backup. Email them to your Gmail account for double backup.

      Recommendations – Give folks you work with/for recommendations when they do great work. Be willing to revise them if folks find typos in your recommendation or if they want you to use different words to say the same thing. 

9)      Recommendations – Ask for recommendations after you do great work. Don’t be afraid to offer a suggestion of what a good recommendation to you might look like. Make sure you ask the right people for the right thing. The last thing you want to do is put someone in a place to give you a recommendation on something they can’t honestly say you did.

10)  Answers – Answer questions in your area of expertise, or recommend the questions you find to experts you know can answer them.

11)  Answers – Ask questions of your network when you need help (and for bonus points, publish the answer on your blog for all to read). Never ask folks to respond privately so everyone can learn from your questions.

What are YOUR best LinkedIn tips? Share them in the comments below.

If you’d like to connect with me on LinkedIn, please invite me to your network, and let me know how I know you, and I will be happy to connect to you. If you give me a generic “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” and we’ve never exchanged e-mails or I don’t remember you, then I can’t add you. I can’t let just anyone in my network.

Connecting to people, online and offline, is one of the best ways I know to improve your business, and to improve your life. Frequently when I talk to groups about the power of connections, I’m asked HOW to network.

To me, it’s a natural thing. I love people.

To some, it’s difficult, and a learned trait.

But I’ve thought about what I do, and how I do it, and I thought it might be helpful, for all those who need a little help. None of these are rocket science, they’re just simple, honest tips that work for me.

Know WHY you want to connect to this person – Is it because they are a favorite author of yours, a thought leader in your field, just a cool person, or what is it about them? Let me know that when you reach out, and be honest. If it's just a fan boy/fan girl letter of "Hey, I love your writing" that's great. Be specific about why you want to connect, even if it's just to say thanks for writing a great book or article, or thanks for giving a powerful presentation.

Help FIRST – See what the other person needs and add value to the relationship before you ever ask for help. One of the things I like to do after I attend a seminar is offer an unsolicited testimonial for any speakers that changed my thinking. I’ll email it to them, post it on their LinkedIn profile, or post it up along with a link to their site on my site. And anytime I do that, I make sure and be specific about why I’m doing it, as a thank you for the value they added to my life.

Be authentic – It’s important to be who you really are and most folks will naturally be attracted to that. You won’t attract EVERYONE this way, but those who aren’t attracted to you aren’t folks you want in your network anyway.

Start small, think GREAT – Never underestimate the power of connecting to just 1 person. 1 person can make a HUGE difference in your life. Make it a point to focus on that 1 other person by asking questions about their needs and their wants, and make that 1 relationship GREAT.

Connect others together when appropriate – Now that you know the other person, how about connecting them to someone else they might value knowing? The power of three is more than the power of me! Connect 2 people who don't know each other, share why you think they should connect, and then make the introduction. KEY POINT: Be sure to explain WHY you are making the introduction or folks may feel like you’re stalking them or worse, trying to sell them something.

What are your best tips for connecting with people?